A Century-Old Russian Find

Scientific excavations in Russia’s Tver Oblast recently uncovered a clay pot, estimated to be about a century old, that contained 409 gold coins. Researchers believe the hoard, located in the foundation of an old house in the city of Torzhok some 260 miles southeast of St. Petersburg, was likely tucked away around the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917. 

The coins, most of which are 10 rubles, date from 1848 and 1911. They have a cumulative face value of 4,085 rubles, but the coins are presently worth more than US$500,000 due to their gold content and numismatic value. The find, which represents a tumultuous chapter for the nation, is one of the largest such discoveries in Russian archaeological history. 

The coins were hidden around the time Czar Nicholas II served as the last Russian emperor. As the Russian Revolution took hold, the czar and the royal Romanov family were executed. The incoming socialist Bolshevik regime, led by Vladimir Lenin, founded the Soviet Union. Relics from the period hold great significance today. The scientists who uncovered the long-forgotten clay pot and its 400-plus gold coins bestowed them to the All-Russian Historical Ethnographic Museum.